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It was late. Out of one of Chicago’s many bars stumbled a heavy-set man in a crumpled suit. He stepped forward clumsily, clearly drunk as a skunk, and bent forwards and forcefully emptied the contents of his stomach into the drain in front of him. Passersby laughed at the scene but the man was far too drunk to care about having earned their derision. He wiped the sick from his mouth with the back of his hand and stared up at the sky for a few seconds whilst he tried to regain his balance. Suddenly a gold streak tore across the Chicago skyline and the man’s eyes widened with shock. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief and looked up at the sky once more to find the gold streak had disappeared. Confused, the man shook his head, steeled himself to attempt to walk, and then made his way back inside.

At the centre of the streak was Booster Gold. Behind him his robotic companion Skeets attempted to keep pace with the man he had been charged by Rip Hunter to watch over but was visibly struggling, something Booster was completely oblivious to. The second booster had found out that Ted Kord might have been able to fix the Time Sphere had had been set upon tracking him down. Finally he had settled upon simply showing up at The Kord Omniversal Building and figuring out the rest once they were there. Skeets wasn’t so keen on the plan.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, sir? From what I understand of twenty-first century customs, it’s not exactly considered polite to appear uninvited at a person’s place of residence. Perhaps we ought to come back at a more appropriate time.”

“For once in your life could you stop being so goddamned sensible, Skeets?” Booster said with a shake of his head. “Who cares if this Kord guy is in his pajamas? You said he could fix the Time Sphere. That’s all that matters.”

It was moments like this that Skeets wished he had teeth he could grit. Rip Hunter had seen something in Michael Carter that seemingly everybody else had missed. He was vain, petty, self-interested, and arrogant at the best of times, but all these things Skeets could forgive. It was his propensity to hear what he wanted to hear that wore on the robot’s patience.

“That’s not [i]exactly[/i] what I said, sir.”

Booster waved his hand in the robot’s direction dismissively and continued to fly.

“Look, let’s not get caught up in the details. The sooner the Sphere is fixed, the sooner we can get home, and sort this whole mess out. Why wait a second longer than we need to?”

Skeets could think of hundreds of reasons. Not that any of them would have changed Michael Carter’s mind at this point. It was becoming clearer and clearer by the second that once it was made up there was little Skeets could do to change it. Whilst Rip was around there was still some hope Skeets would be able to see sense but now there was no one else it was almost always a lost cause. Since they’d arrived in the twenty-first century he’d gotten a lot better at recognizing that.

“I’m not going to be able to convince you, am I?”

Booster smiled.

“No.”

Finally the pair pulled up to a building that towered over the rest. Even amongst Chicago’s storied skyline it stood out. One day the world would come to know and respect Ted Kord for the good that Kord Omniversal would do the world over. Though less celebrated in his own time his inventions would change the lives of millions, his kindness would be remembered long after his passing, and the world would owe him a great debt for his many efforts to improve it. Skeets marveled as the pair floated before the building in front of them, aware of all the history that would be made in the building over the coming years.

“This is it,” Skeets purred reverentially. “The Kord Omniversal Building.”

Booster’s tone was far less reverential.

“Whoa, this is where this guy lives? Pretty sweet digs.”

“Do we have a plan of entry, sir?”

There was a flash of light as Booster went flying towards the building without warning. Skeets hovered in place, watching Carter as he grew closer to the building by the second, and let out a robotic sigh. Sometimes he didn’t know why he even bothered asking.

It didn’t take Booster long to find his way inside the building despite its sophisticated security system and he prowled through its corridors in an attempt to find some way to access the penthouse atop the building. He had no reason to believe that Ted Kord lived in the penthouse, nor did he have reason to believe Kord would even be in, but he figured the penthouse would be the place he’d be if he were a billionaire. Who hasn’t a penthouse and doesn’t use it? Booster smiled as he turned a corner and a set of heavy doors came into view at the end of the corridor.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a young woman seated at a desk a few feet before the doors leading to the penthouse. A receptionist, Booster thought to himself, and an attractive one at that. In his years on the road in the twenty-fifth century he’d bagged plenty of receptionists and he knew that confidence was the key to getting what you wanted with them. Act like you belong, act like you know what you’re doing, and they’ll be putty in your hands. At least that's what Booster told himself as he strode by with his chest puffed out like a peacock.

“Excuse me, sir? Sir? Where do you think you’re going?”

Booster stopped in his tracks and smiled in the woman’s direction.

“Are you talking to me?”

“Of course I’m talking to you,” She said with a roll of her eyes. “You’re the only one here. Although I’m not exactly sure how you got past our security system.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Booster said with a smile. “Ted and I are old friends, we went to college with one another, I thought I’d drop in since I was in town to have a chat with him.”

The woman shook her head at disbelief at the comment. They’d only been speaking for thirty seconds and she already knew everything about him. There was no way this guy went to college with Ted and if he somehow managed to it was probably on an athletic scholarship.

“[i]You[/i] went to college with Ted? Somehow I find that hard to believe.”

Booster’s pressed a hand to his chest and feigned shock.

“Has anyone told you that you’re kind of rude, lady?”

“My name is Tracy,” She said firmly. “Remind me, what college did Ted go to? You ought to know since you’re old college friends.”

Tracy placed her hands on her hips and waited whilst Booster contorted his face as he attempted to pluck the right university out of his imagination. He looked around what he could see of the building in the hopes of figuring it out and attempted to sound his way through universities until he landed on the right one. Unsurprisingly Tracy seemed less than inclined to help him out.

“Ha… Ya… Br… Stanford?”

“MIT,” Tracy said with a smile. “Nice try though. Whoever you are you’ve got exactly thirty seconds to find your way back out of the building before I call security and they force you out.”

Booster lifted his hands into the air and began to walk away from the penthouse entrance. 

“Skeets! Let’s go!”

Suddenly as if out of nowhere Skeets came whirring round the corner and the pair of them sprinted towards the entrance to the penthouse. Tracy leapt from her seat and ran after them, attempting to grab a hold of one of Booster’s arm, but he thrust her away with a stiff arm so picture-esque that John Heisman would have been proud.

“Hey! Hey! You can’t go in there.”

The doors to the penthouse burst open and Skeets and Booster came skidding to a halt as the ceiling began to open. Through it a beetle shaped aircraft hovered down, landing in front of them, and a man dressed in a peculiar blue costume stepped from the mouth of the craft. The man’s mask was down and in his mouth was a half-eaten hotdog.

It was Ted Kord.